I call it 'Walking Home' because it's an image taken near where I lived as a kid, in San Mateo, California, and I remember walking along the eucalyptus lined roads just loving the scent!

It's a class demo, very much still in progress as I only have an hour or so in it at the moment, but it was fun and I like the results so far. I still need to tweak the shapes to make these more definitely eucalyptus trees, and do some detailing. I was showing the class how to use every color in your palette of the same or a similar value (well, almost) to enhance your color work. It can be done with loud, brash, bold colors or with more lush, quieter, muted ones like this...

It's on Wallis Pro and is 12x12".

Your comments always welcome!

Deborah

barrykeller

07-01-2008, 05:12 PM

Deborah,

This is looking very nice. I can't wait to see it after you do your "detailing." Love the cool feel of it.

jillstefaniwagner

07-01-2008, 05:13 PM

love it! Its so loose and yet so detailed. Have the feeling i've walked there myself!

Pat Isaac

07-01-2008, 06:12 PM

What a wonderful feeling to this piece. It has a solitude and memory to it.

Pat

Susan Jenkins

07-01-2008, 07:21 PM

Deborah,
I really don't think this needs too much more detailing. I love the style you have going on here. There is such a feeling of height to this. My eye is pulled down the road and up into the trees as well. I love your use of stroke in this piece. I am doing some value studies myself and learning so much.
This is really beautiful and I learn so much from your work. THANK YOU!!!

susan

Paula Ford

07-01-2008, 07:51 PM

Oh I just love the purples, violets and greens together...just beautiful!

Punky2

07-01-2008, 09:27 PM

I love these colors, so beautiful!

I just returned from California and the eucalyptus trees are awe inspiring.

Terri

Karen Margulis

07-01-2008, 10:38 PM

Oh My favorite colors!!! I love the feel to this and I can smell those trees! Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to see what else you do to it!
Karen

chatfieldstudios

07-01-2008, 11:07 PM

Gorgeous! It's almost like a misty memory....

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:13 AM

Deborah,

This is looking very nice. I can't wait to see it after you do your "detailing." Love the cool feel of it.

Thanks, Barry. We've been so hot and dry here lately that the cool moist feel appealed to me. Glad to know you get that from the painting.

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:15 AM

love it! Its so loose and yet so detailed. Have the feeling i've walked there myself!

Oh, good--maybe you have walked there! I have more plans for some characteristic shaping in the trees but not a lot of picky details. Thanks.

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:18 AM

What a wonderful feeling to this piece. It has a solitude and memory to it.

Pat

Hey Pat, thank you! I always loved fog when living in CA. One of those famous 'family sayings' quotes me saying, when away from home as a kid, "What I wouldn't give for good fog!"

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:20 AM

Deborah,
I really don't think this needs too much more detailing. I love the style you have going on here. There is such a feeling of height to this. My eye is pulled down the road and up into the trees as well. I love your use of stroke in this piece. I am doing some value studies myself and learning so much.
This is really beautiful and I learn so much from your work. THANK YOU!!!

susan

Wow--thanks, Susan. I'm delighted that you're enjoying it. As I said, I don't plan a lot of picky-ditsy detail, just more shaping with light around the trees. Hope you show your value studies here, too...

Deborah

Scottyarthur

07-02-2008, 12:21 AM

Deborah it is beautiful the colors are awesome, I think it stands quite well as it is, so I can't wait to see it finished.

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:21 AM

Oh I just love the purples, violets and greens together...just beautiful!

I like that combo of colors, too. Thanks!

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:25 AM

I love these colors, so beautiful!

I just returned from California and the eucalyptus trees are awe inspiring.

Terri

Aren't they cool trees, Terri? I love the textures, colors, the scent and even the sound--as a kid I used to climb them and there was a neat sort of hollow sound when you called a friend sitting higher in the tree. (Maybe that's true of a lot of trees, because of the canopy, but I climbed a few select eucalyptus!)

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:29 AM

Oh My favorite colors!!! I love the feel to this and I can smell those trees! Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to see what else you do to it!
Karen

I adore that scent. I remember years ago a friend sent me a bottle of eucalyptus bath oil and suggested as I soaked I should close my eyes and remember this very road. It was like a sensory trip back in time....so soothing. Thank you--I'm glad you like it.

Deborah

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 12:29 AM

Gorgeous! It's almost like a misty memory....

Thanks, Cindy. Yes, that's it. In fact I almost used that as a title!

Deborah

IMaybe

07-02-2008, 02:14 AM

:wave: While I too really like this painting and the colors and the 12x 12 format, with the trees looking so tall in the format----I have a question about the class. You said, and I want to understand because I want to learn about color usage, and harmonizing-----colors of similiar or same vaule, but different hues....is that right? And I love the darks, yet they are darker than the others, Of course----Wish I had been there in the class!!!! So do I undrstand this right? The whole painting wasn't supposed to be all close-values? The trees are so nice, and the misty feel. I may sound lame but just want ing to know. Thanks.

binkie

07-02-2008, 03:21 AM

I feel like everyone else, those colors are fabulous!!!! I'm really looking forward to seeing it completed.

binkie

maw-t

07-02-2008, 03:40 AM

Beautiful colors!!! I want to be THERE!

Colorix

07-02-2008, 07:17 AM

Deborah, my first thought when seeing this was: "Don't touch it, it is perfect as it is!" Meaning, the soft misty feel, and the coloured neutrals are fabulous!

Ah, if only you had photographed the steps...

IMaybe, I read it as meaning same values and different hues *within* every value area. That is, I took that for granted, but may be wrong. :-)

Tressa

07-02-2008, 08:04 AM

What a great memory Deborah, and these trees are wonderful in and of themselves. I love the sound their leaves make when the breeze blows thru, the change in color, and the smell, all a great sensory combination.
The color scheme is great in this, and hope you keep the tweaks to a minimum!
Tressa

kentiessen

07-02-2008, 08:43 AM

What an excellent way of developing and experimenting with new color! This allows so much room for a personal and emotional interpretation/growth, and one that I will apply soon. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
My family lives in central California- eucalyptus are distinctive of that area. Some dislike them for their debris and instability, but they have the most beautiful shapes. Areas were planted with the plan to use them as furniture wood, but the cracking of drying logs caused them to abandon the groves, which can still be found.

Deborah Secor

07-02-2008, 10:48 AM

:wave: While I too really like this painting and the colors and the 12x 12 format, with the trees looking so tall in the format----I have a question about the class. You said, and I want to understand because I want to learn about color usage, and harmonizing-----colors of similar or same value, but different hues....is that right? And I love the darks, yet they are darker than the others, Of course----Wish I had been there in the class!!!! So do I understand this right? The whole painting wasn't supposed to be all close-values? The trees are so nice, and the misty feel. I may sound lame but just wanting to know. Thanks.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Good questions, too!

Charlie has it right. What I was doing was encouraging my students to find many, many colors in all different hues to plug into each value area. So, for instance, in the sky I used green, pink, blue, yellow-orange and lavender in a very pale value. Likewise in the trees you'll find red, orange, gold, blue, green, violet, ALL layered together to make interesting combinations of color. The colors are not laid down in equal proportions and they are NOT blended together with my fingers (instant recipe for mud.) The finishing layers tend to be the color you perceive the area as being, so the last layer of blue or turquoise or violet flavored the colors most--but in real life you can easily see the multiple colors within.

It's a great way to learn that you really can use any color in the proper value, and that you can layer together colors of different temperatures and still have fresh color, even if neutralized somewhat. Everyone needs a good neutral now and then--but not mud!

I hope that describes it...

Deborah

*Marina*

07-02-2008, 11:01 AM

Just a lovely feel to it. Remembers me of my holiday on the westcoast of the US.

CindyW

07-02-2008, 01:04 PM

Beautiful tall friends of earth! I AM a treehugger and I'd say pretty proud of it. You can't help but feel that they are gentle giants who wish you to be among their gatherings, sharing the day with them, snow, rain, or shine.
Another gorgeous painting, Deborah! I love it as is and I have always found the square canvas to be very magnetic, powerful, almost as much as the circle shape is.
As always, I'm in awe that something at this point is only an hour's worth of work. Can we say "inspiration"? :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Wonderful!
Cindy :)

Adriana Meiss

07-02-2008, 05:31 PM

Hi,
I love the atmosphere in this painting!
Your choice of colors is great. It reminds me of a time I was taking a plein air workshop and I asked a woman why she was using a particular color that to me was not in the scene she was painting. She said she just wanted to use colors she hardly used. The effect was good because she was using similar values. Ever since I have tried to do that in most of my paintings but I'm not as bold as you are.
Adriana

CarolaH

07-02-2008, 05:43 PM

I think it is wonderful. I love the colors, the mistiness (is that a word?). = )
I love the bend in the road too.

Kathryn Wilson

07-02-2008, 07:55 PM

Deborah - was this pulled totally from memory, or was there a reference photo?

I wonder if you have your palette of colors still pulled out of your box - and if you might photograph the colors and values that you used? Perhaps even a greyscale would help show what you are aiming at here.

:o Forgot to say how lovely this is - all of your paintings are, but this one speaks to me for some reason.

sielograms

07-02-2008, 08:54 PM

Beautiful painting, it appears you have some bold and energetic strokes but yet it retains such a wonderful softness. I always enjoy seeing your work.
Sharon

IMaybe

07-03-2008, 01:28 AM

:wave: Oh thanks for your reply and explanation. I am reminded of something I read in Harley Brown's first book. If its the right value, then is ultimatley the right color. And I have been realived by that. I am so glad you explanied this, too, because I have been thinking along these lines. I feel I have gotten into the habit of just rubbing down a solid color mass sometimes, and was thinking about doing some studies and this will help me get my brain around it. I look at Salley Strand's work, and Judy Pelts's trees, and now this and am in awe!! Thanks again.

Deborah Secor

07-03-2008, 01:40 AM

I meant to thank each person for their comments but I just can't keep up! You all are very kind and I think you for your nice comments and encouragement. :wave:

Kat, I no longer pull out the colors from my palette as I work. I simply place them back in the palette where they belong (in theory.) This actually helps me because I find I may reach for one and snag another that's a slight way off and get some more exciting color, which can make for some very interesting effects.

Oh, and I had a ref photo. I needed it to show my students the original colors and values. It was quite blue, so I added all kinds of greens and reds to the photo, plus I grabbed sections of it and turned up the contrast. I cropped and tweaked and played with it, as usual.

Deborah

bnoonan

07-07-2008, 01:26 PM

How did I miss this one? Oh yes - I recall now - I was off in my paper world of catch up.

Deborah is there anything you can't capture? I have to say I'm not sure I'd recognize this as your work but I can tell you how I felt when I opened it.

surrounded and cuddled by that smell and mist and coolness of the California foggy mornings that I loved. Wow...

I also loved the way you explained the lesson. It's something I might do automatically but never knew it to be an approach.

You colors always sing - is there anything you can't paint? I think not!!!

Barb There's no "Smilie" for just pure bliss is there?:music:

BabyBeeb

07-07-2008, 05:55 PM

Deborah,
You've certainly captured a scene in Monterey, or maybe is it somewhere off the Cabrillo Hwy? And the smelllll...awe, the wonderful smell, your painting brings back many trips to the coast with my family as a kid. The foggy colors, the beautiful colors in the trees you've made (even though you're not done yet) are really, really incredible! Thanks so much for sharing this beauty!
Brenda

Selahs art

07-07-2008, 05:58 PM

Stunning soft painting.
Excellent.
Retha

Deborah Secor

07-07-2008, 06:26 PM

Aw, thanks Barb! I love that part of the world, even though I haven't been there for a lot of years. It still feels like home to me.

Brenda, actually this is about a hundred miles north of Monterey, much closer to Half Moon Bay...

Have any of you found the wonderful street level pix on Google Earth? This is a shot of this same street area:

Deborah - I love this. I live in northern CA and the eucalyptus trees are my favs. And this really gives the feeling of our cool foggy climate.

Wakar

rhapsodyerin

08-29-2008, 01:54 AM

This painting is superb. The trees look so majestic and noble. I love all the colors used and it all comes together in a wonderful picture.

Deborah Secor

08-29-2008, 09:44 AM

Thanks--it's nice that the Californians find it authentic! I appreciate hearing that...

Deborah

george c martins

08-29-2008, 11:44 AM

Hi Deborah

Love just like it is...love the quick style on it....and the sense of refreshing is gives....

Deborah Secor

08-29-2008, 04:14 PM

That's very nice to hear--thank you George!

Deborah

David Patterson

08-29-2008, 08:36 PM

This is very beautiful Deborah! I love the airy feel to this, and all the soft colour.

David

Deborah Secor

08-30-2008, 12:23 PM

Hey David, thanks so much!

Deborah

HarvestMoon

08-30-2008, 02:00 PM

Deborah- it is paradise on earth...absolutely stunning in every way- have never seen anything quite like it...the angled slashes of lavender are just outstanding- the viewpoint incredible...

Deborah Secor

08-30-2008, 02:08 PM

Wow--thanks, Linda. I have fond memories of this place from my childhood, even to the point of feelings and scents. I liked the low angle, which expressed the sense of being a little child looking up. I'm so glad you noticed it...

Deborah

Mike_Beeman

08-31-2008, 01:49 PM

Hi Deb
I've looked at this painting several times now...and my eye keeps going to the end of the path and leaves me wondering which way do I go? Love the colors and the overall feeling it portrays....
Mike